'Tiffany's' manuscript sells for $306,000

AMHERST, N.H. (AP) — Truman Capote’s 1958 typed manuscript of “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” with the author’s handwritten edits has sold for about $306,000 at auction to a Russian billionaire.

The manuscript, expected to net at least $250,000, was offered for sale online by the Amherst-based auction house RR Auction.

RR Auction said the winning bidder is Russian retail billionaire Igor Sosin, who plans to display it in Moscow and Monaco.

Capote’s handwritten notations include changing the femme fatale’s name from Connie Gustafson to the now-iconic Holly Golightly.

Its plot — built around a woman who supports herself through trysts with wealthy lovers — was scandalous. Harper’s Bazaar bought serialization rights, then balked at its explicit content. Esquire magazine purchased it from Harper’s and launched it to its 1961 silver screen adaptation starring Audrey Hepburn.

ROME (AP) — Italy appeared poised today to finally get a new government, a broad coalition which brings media mogul Silvio Berlusconi’s forces back to power, this time in tense alliance with center-left rivals.

Premier-designate Enrico Letta arrived at the Quirinale Palace to brief Italy’s president, a meeting widely seen as indicating the center-left leader either had succeeded